Frontiers in Spectroscopy

Physics 880

Winter 2001

Instructor: Terry A. Miller  Phone: 292-2569 
Office: 18 Celeste Lab  email: tamiller+@osu.edu

 

Course Description: This course will provide students with an overview of topics on the frontier of spectroscopic research. It will exploit internationally renowned lecturers, as well as outstanding OSU faculty, to cover topics ranging from very fundamental to quite applied. General areas to be covered will include fundamental characteristics of molecular quantum structure, electromagnetics, new experimental techniques, remote sensing, ultra-high sensitivity analytical techniques, astrophysical applications, etc. It is planned that the course will be offered multiple times, with topics and speakers varying with each offering. The lecturers for the upcoming Winter quarter are listed below.

Each topic will be covered by lectures on Wednesday and Friday mornings, 9:00-10:18AM, MP2015, with a discussion period 9:00010:18AM on Thursdays in MP2015.

Prerequisites: Chemistry 866 or Physics 780.04 or permission of the instructor

Required Text: None; suggested articles for reading will be supplied prior to the lecture on a given topic.

Syllabus:

John B. Delos , College of William and Mary (Jan. 10-12), "Classical Orbits and Quantum Spectra"

Herb Pickett, Jet Propulsion Lab (Jan. 17-19), "Atmospheric Spectroscopy"

Randall G. Hulet , Rice University, (Jan. 31, Feb. 1, 2), "Bose Einstein Condensation"

Phil Bucksbaum , University of Michigan (Feb. 7, 8, 9), Quantum control: Techniques and Applications

Per Jensen , Universitaet Wuppertal (Feb. 21-23), "Local Modes"  

"Local Mode Vibrations and Beyond"
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The lectures are concerned with the description of highly excited rotational and/or vibrational states of molecules in terms of localized vibrations or local modes. In this context, I make an attempt to unify the ideas and notations of the key publications on the subject in a manner that treats the vibrational and rotational motions equally and that demonstrates the importance of molecular symmetry.

Emphasis is put on explaining the intimate relationship between local mode vibrations and the formation of both vibrational and rovibrational energy level clusters. In rovibrational cluster states, a molecule can sustain localized vibrations for very many vibrational periods, even at low vibrational excitation. Local mode behaviour is induced by both vibrational and rotational excitation.

An important application of local mode theory is the derivation of relations between the effective rotation-vibration parameters for highly excited vibrational states of a molecule. I show, using the H2Se molecule as example, that such relations are only valid for certain forms of the effective rotation-vibration Hamiltonian. Thus caution is required when the results of fittings to spectral data are compared with local mode theory.

The lecture on Wednesday deals with the description of the vibrational energy level pattern of molecules at high excitation in terms of local modes, whereas the Friday lecture is concerned with the effects of localized vibrations on the rotational energy level patterns, in particular formation of rovibrational energy clusters.

For Thursday, I suggest a more in-depth description of our own calculations of four-fold energy level clusters in triatomic molecules.

Recommended reading:
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1. M. S. Child and L. Halonen, Adv. Chem. Phys. 57, 1 (1984)
2. P. Jensen, G. Osmann, and I.N. Kozin, in "Vibrational-Rotational Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics" (D. Papousek, Editor), World Scientific, Singapore, 1997.
3. P. Jensen, Mol. Phys. 98, 1253 (2000).
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Grading: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory options: Class attendance and participation

Letter grade option: Class attendance and participation plus term paper

(Grades will be assigned solely by OSU faculty.)
 

Call number: 19293-3 (S/U option)

19294-9 (letter grade option - prerequisite=a previous spectroscopy course at OSU in Chemistry or Physics or prior permission of the instruction)


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